Since the international community adopted the Paris Agreement to overcome the climate crisis and achieve carbon neutrality, the Korean government has proposed offshore wind power as an alternative in various national plans and policies. According to t...
Since the international community adopted the Paris Agreement to overcome the climate crisis and achieve carbon neutrality, the Korean government has proposed offshore wind power as an alternative in various national plans and policies. According to the current law, offshore wind power deployment in Korea is carried out through an open process centered on private operators. This process consists of a site discovery stage, a site and development licensing stage, a site and development consultation stage, and a stage to secure public acceptance. However, this process is fraught with significant problems and has been cited as a hindrance to the widespread deployment of offshore wind power.
On the other hand, Denmark, which is classified as an advanced offshore wind power country, and Japan and Taiwan, which were late adopters but are catching up rapidly, are actively promoting offshore wind power. This study identifies the problems with the current law and recommends the enactment of a special offshore wind law to establish an integrated administrative procedure to address complex issues, rather than solving them with temporary measures.
The authors pointed out the following problems under the current law: ① lack of prior consultation on siting, ② encouragement of competitive siting that requires indiscriminate occupation of marine areas, ③ increased uncertainty in business due to complex and scattered licensing procedures, ④ limitations in the public consultation process due to complex procedures, ⑤ disparity between the burden of proof for compensation for fishery losses and the calculation of those losses, and ⑥ public participation projects that contradict the principle of self-responsibility. While these issues may appear isolated at first glance, leading to potential misunderstandings, they are interrelated due to the complex nature of offshore wind power. A cure-all approach that addresses each problem in isolation is unlikely to contribute to the widespread deployment of offshore wind power.
Therefore, given that interests and problems are intertwined and compounded, it is recommended to enact a special law, as the existing legal framework has limitations in establishing integrated administrative procedures. Additionally, to successfully promote offshore wind power deployment, we recommend that a special law be enacted or existing laws be amended with consideration of several factors.
First, a planned location system should be introduced to ensure the systematic and orderly use of marine space, facilitating the expansion of offshore wind power. This should be based on overseas legislative examples. Second, proactive locations should be identified in advance to minimize conflicts with stakeholders or environmental damage, and an information network should be established and operated. Third, an integrated committee should be established to deliberate and decide on matters related to the integrated administrative process, as administrative agencies and stakeholders with multiple interests may conflict. Fourth, a streamlined licensing system should be introduced to effectively shorten the licensing process, which currently takes nearly half of the time required for an entire project due to complex and fragmented legal procedures. Fifth, an integrated review system should be implemented to assess the substance of the license, even when a license is deemed necessary, so that uncertainty due to subsequent environmental assessments is minimized. Sixth, public-private councils, which are currently not effectively contributing to securing public acceptance under the existing law, should be allowed to be organized and operated by law, and these should be established as an effective system. Seventh, since compensation for losses will be inevitable if proactive site identification is not possible, a special law should stipulate the basis for compensation for losses, ease the burden of proof based on objective information, and ensure just compensation. Eighth, instead of community participation projects that lead to economic inequality and undermine the purpose of the profit-sharing system, a basic income system should be introduced, funded by a profit-sharing fund under the Renewable Energy Act. Furthermore, a fishery resource conservation contract, having the nature of a contract under public law, should be concluded to enable the coexistence of offshore wind power and fisheries.